He’s the “800-pound elephant in the room,” as one defense lawyer referred to Mayor Bloomberg.

Bloomberg is not on trial — in fact, he’s the alleged victim. But he remained the central figure in the case of a political consultant accused of stealing a $1.1 million campaign contribution the mayor made during his 2009 re-election bid.

“Is there anybody here who thinks that Michael Bloomberg is so rich . . . that we don’t care if anyone steals more than a million dollars [from him]?” lead prosecutor Eric Seidel asked prospective jurors yesterday in the trial of John Haggerty in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Prosecutors say he bamboozled Bloomberg into thinking the contribution to the Independence Party would be used to pay for Election Day ballot security.

Haggerty’s lawyers hint they’ll argue he believed he had permission to keep $750,000 for months of volunteer work on the mayor’s campaign.